Convention Money.
Awhile ago I did a post with a detailed financial breakdown of my operating costs as a pro cartoonist, with an explanation of the costs of attending shows in particular. Bleeding Cool asked to run the post on their site, and as usual, some rather clueless people took it as A) an attack on conventions B) proof I’m unable to make money at conventions C) I’m avariciously making big money at conventions.
Whatever.
Well, who doesn’t love a long line of people gathered to get their books signed. This doesn’t happen at every show, just so you know.
Point about shows: they are draining, but they are easy money.
I MAKE MORE MONEY AT SHOWS THAN I DO DRAWING COMICS.
This is why a lot of people do nothing these days but run around to shows selling prints and sketches. It’s stupid easy money. A lot of people sell bootleg prints. I have a legal license with DC Comics, but I have no other licenses, so don’t sell prints I can’t sell.
I can sell books. I can sell sketches.
What I can’t do is go to a lot of shows and draw a lot of comics at the same time.
All use of time is a zero sum game.
What really frightens me is not my expenses, which are pretty reasonable in terms of the number of shows I attended, but HOW LOW MY COMIC ART OUTPUT IS WHEN I DO SHOWS.
Conventions are fun!
For example, the entire first 6 months of 2017 were a blur, but I sat down and went over my production for 2017 and compared it to 2018, and it was shocking. I was more productive over a 4 month period in 2018 than I was for the entirety of 2017.
All of that can’t be attributed to shows, of course: I have chronic health issues. I have to manage my resources carefully.
But I don’t know a single pro who isn’t making a hard assessment of the time and energy that goes into shows, except for pros who aren’t getting much work in publishing. I’m getting lots of offers, and have to balance them with my creator-owned work and my energy.
When I get home from a show, I’m usually flattened for a day or two. When you add the time to ship and pack, there goes another day. Every show is about a week. Just one show a month is 12 weeks a year comics didn’t get made.
You guys make me smile. Also…coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.
I really like getting out and doing shows, I love seeing fans and my friends. And since I am pretty isolated out here in my mountain lair, it’s a much-needed break!
But I definitely can’t afford to be on the road as much as some people are, not in terms of mere money (because it’s profitable to go to shows, even though, for a pro, you’ll see diminishing returns if your work isn’t in books once in awhile,) but in terms of CREATIVITY. Most shows eat my comic-making energy.
There’s a lot of binary thinking about artists: you’re either rich or poor. When people want something free, you must be rich, so you should give it away because otherwise you’re stingy. If you want to sell something, you must be poor because rich people don’t need money.
You can see how this just goes around in a circle and gets adjusted depending on who wants to slur whom and when.
For my part, I’m middle class/working class, and my income can go way up and way down depending. Most of my income issues are health-related. I have no trouble getting work. I have trouble doing it when I get it.
I’m not hurting for job offers. And conventions, as I wrote, are easy money. But I didn’t become a cartoonist to go to conventions.
People get upset when we point out that cons aren't vacations for us. They are part of a work day, and we need to not only exercise money management, but time management.
If I’m at a convention, the comics aren’t getting made.
This practical, pragmatic stuff upsets people. I don't understand why, but it does.
Legacy creators - if they had a good run at Marvel or DC back in the day - may not be making much money from their publishers, but if they are selling books, and signing autographs, and selling prints, they are making a tidy wad at shows. I know a few people who make more money at a couple of shows per year than I make all year, period.
Conventions are paying for the semi-retirement of many a name creator.
Not me.
Not yet.
"People get upset when we point out that cons aren't vacations for us." Oh, I would get people ANGRY when I'd point that out, that I couldn't get away from my table to go hang out with them. They'd get even angrier when they'd invite me to parties after the dealer's room closed and I'd have to decline: they got the chance to sleep in, but I was usually up at 5 in the morning to get restocking done (selling carnivorous plants was a drastically different operation, and some shows were so successful that I'd spend most of the night after getting home repotting and packing up new plants to replace the ones I'd sold just on Friday) before spending another eight to ten hours in the dealer's room, and even explaining "This is my workday" didn't get through. But it's a CONVENTION, right? (Sorry if I'm overly cantankerous on the subject, but the only thing worse were the tantrums when I'd have to do the hard financial analysis of renting a van, filling it full of glass/water/live plants, driving X number of hours, paying for food and accommodations, and losing anywhere between four and six days of Day Job Pay versus the expected sales from conventions that MIGHT get 75 people and 40 of them are staff. I had one guy repeatedly nag me about being a vendor at his gaming convention, with regular demurrals because his con was opposite one I'd attended for years that actually made money, only to come out to another convention and scream "So why won't you be a vendor at MY show?" first thing after the dealer's room opened on Saturday. There's a lot I miss about the old Triffid Ranch shows, but being nagged and nuhdzed by reps for other conventions who refused to understand that I couldn't afford to spend a four-day weekend at a steampunk convention in Idaho where all 20 of the attendees came with packed meals so they wouldn't have to spend money in the hotel...that, I don't miss at all.)
A few years ago I was waiting for a Lyft to take me to LAX, and looking at my carry-on roller bag and I had the thought, "I'm a traveling salesman." My emotional reaction wasn't a positive or negative one, just more of a "huh. I never thought about that."
Writers -- particularly non-superstar writers like myself -- can't make the same amount of money at cons that artists do. Harder to sell prints (though some artists have graciously allowed me to do so.) Can't sell art. Can't draw commissions. And some people barely understand that comics HAVE writers.
But on the other hand... about 90% of my career grew out of meetings (social ones) with editors and colleagues at cons. So I go. My rule is I won't pay for a table, so I only table when I'm given one. I also (most of the time) won't go to a travel con unless the con is paying for my travel. I make the occasional exception for cons that are located in cities I want to visit for some other reason. This isn't me being snotty or elitist: I literally can't afford to spend money on a con. Back in the day, I remember an SDCC where me and my wife had a booth, and if sales had been lower... I don't think I'd have been able to cover the hotel bill. Never again. Can't handle that kind of stress. I have enough grey hair.
I have friends who do an insane amount of cons, and make great money, and my hat is off to them, but I don't think that'll ever be me...